Not to sound like I am defending Walmart: FAR FROM IT...

[Tyler Durden]

...but there are communities in this country that NEED the lousy jobs that the Walmart provides. I live in one.

In Owosso, Michigan, they used to make the highest quality furniture in the entire country. Presidents from Woodrow Wilson to Ronald Reagan bought furniture for the WHITE HOUSE and the US CAPITAL OFFICES from furniture manufacturers in Owosso, of which there were several. They were that good.

In Owosso, there used to be manufacturing plants that made major electrical components for GE, Siemens, etc. Now these components are made in Mexico, China, Korea...

In Owosso, there used to be major automotive parts supplier factories: over 10 in a city of 20,000. They employed almost 3000 local residents at excellent wages for a small town. Now there are NONE. NONE. NADA. ZIP. The last one closed less than 3 months ago.

In Owosso, there used to be major rail trans-shipment of goods. The Grand Trunk, Ann Arbor/Detroit and other major lines cross here. Not any more.

In Owosso, the Memorial Hospital, open since BEFORE the turn of the 20th (NOT 21st) century is about to go bankrupt. The have an EXCELLENT ER, a major heart surgery, and a structure FULL of the latest of the latest equipment, all purchased in the middle of the "dot com boom," so it's PAID for. Maybe when they close the doors, they can sell it all to CHINA.

So, what's left? Who's the single biggest employer in Owosso's private sector that isn't about to close?

Walmart. Followed closely by Meijer. The K-Mart is on "life support" and not long for the world.

As much as we rail against the current condition of the country and its miserable treatment of the lowest people on the totem pole, without SOME KIND OF JOB, people lose cars, houses, custody of children...

Am I making my point here? This is NOT a "grass roots" issue. The way you change major corporations and economic systems is through the macro politics of the society. As long as the Pig Republicans stay in power, the organizations such as Walmart WILL NOT CHANGE THEIR STRIPES. And the people that work there still need the jobs.

One must remember that MEIJER, K-MART, TARGET and the rest of their ilk are about one baby step higher on the social food chain than Walmart. You cannot turn with your arms out like Jesus in ANY of these stores without clearing a shelf of its "MADE IN CHINA" so-called merchandise. The aforementioned stores DO NOT offer any social magic bullets such as living wages or great health care.

People will not stop shopping at big box stores. HELL, we can't even get them to stop buying HUMMERS for crying out loud. So what should you do?

The same thing I do EVERY DAY. I'm certain that Dave Camp, R-14th district has dismissed me as crank: do I stop writing him EVERY SINGLE DAY and calling at least once a week?

NOPE.

Do I stop calling the offices of State Senators and Representatives, and emailing them daily?

NOPE.

Do I stop calling the office of both Michigan Senators and writing them daily?

NOPE.

If HALF of the people registered at this ONE political board did the same thing, that would be at least 250,000 email contacts EACH DAY and at least 250,000 phone calls a day. That would be 65 MILLION pieces of email EACH YEAR, and 65 MILLION phone calls each year. Need I remind anyone that this total is about 80 million more than the number of votes the PIG BUSH claims as his "mandate"? Keep in mind, this is from ONE WEB SITE.

Now THAT is ACTIVISM. And if it hit the news, you couldn't keep it off page one.

So how do you change Walmart?

If you REALLY want to change Walmart, or ANY OTHER PIG CORPORATION, stop picking on helpless proles and deluded shoppers. I just showed you a method: go ye and do likewise.

I just did my daily thing. It took me less than 8 minutes, counting being placed on hold. That means 5 of my yearly 1300 emails to legislators just got sent, and 5 of my 1300 yearly calls got made. It took me about 1/10 the time it did to write this post, and it cost me NOTHING.

People, the NATION is OURS, if you can count.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.......

[elehhhhna]

1. Rec #1.

[Tyler Durden]

2. I keep wondering WHY people don't do this.

In the time of speeddial and autoreply email, this takes no effort.

I keep wondering WHY this does not happen.

PS: from this day forward, I am going to CC CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNBC on all of these mails.

Another easy thing I just thought up that takes no time. Or effort.

[lectrobyte]

3. You need the WalMart jobs, because they are the only game in

town, having undercut all other small businesses and put them out of business, after sending all the manufacturing jobs to China. Nice strategy. But what will Wal Mart do when the people are too poor to even shop there?

[Tyler Durden]

6. And what's the point?

The people that work there still have to eat.

I have to work 50 miles away one way and travel all the god damned time to feed my family and pay the mortgage.

I'm 53 years old. I've seen my wife and girls on SUNDAY and PART of MONDAY. I will drive 8 hours at 6pm tonight, and I have to go by the office on my way home to clean up a computer to give to a co-worker. God knows what I'll do MY work on. I expect to be home by about 4am.

Tell me THAT is fair.

Like I said, start mail/email/call blitzing your legislators, with copies to CNN, CBS, NBC, CBS, CNBC...Add NPR and PRI to that list.

[lectrobyte]

15. The point? I'm just agreeing with you. and trying to figure out where

it all ends.

[Tyler Durden]

17. It doesn't end unless we convince legislators to STOP IT.

Either that, or we stop it ourselves, and that will be costly and bloody in my book.

[napi21]

4. I understand what you're saying and I agree, A job is better than

NO job! I wish I had the answer, but I don't. I don't think we'll ever be able to get enough people to STOP shopping at WM, therefore WM will continue abusing it's suppliers AND it's employees because there are no consequences for them.

I TOO contact my Rep. and both my Senators every week. Not daily as you do, but at least once a week! All THREE are Pubs and I'm sure they don't give a S... what I say or how many times I contact them!

I can't help but think back to the stories I heard about what happened in the US when businesses abused their workers and totally controlled the Country the last time, many years ago. Unions came into existance! The workers finally got fed up, and revolted. The hand full of extrremely wealthy robber barons like Mellon & Carnegie, etc. were [put under some control, and things got better in the US and a middle class was born. I suspectthe US is going to have to see something drastic like that happen again before we see anything improve!

[Tyler Durden]

9. Copy NPR, PRI, NBC, CNBC, CNN etc. and CALL Them.

AND do it daily. REALLY, it takes little or no time at all.

And if it does take something drastic, you have wasted very little time or effort.

An old Jewish lady went to funeral. She was carrying a pot of chicken soup and a spoon.
She passed the grieving mourners, went straight to the coffin and started spooning soup into the mouth of the dearly deparated.
The mourners went nuts.
"HE'S DEAD!!!! HOW CAN YOU DO THAT???? IT WON'T HELP ANYTHING!!!"
The old lady shrugged.
"Couldn't hurt."

[whistle]

5. Suppose that is the case and a Super Wal-Mart goes in at say...

...750,000 to 1,000,000 sq feet of retail space that provides the mega retail merchandise floor, a very large super market, a pharmacy, a garden center, an auto center and various other special needs space.

The first thing that will happen is that the smaller surrounding retail outlets in the community that Wal-Mart competes with will be pinched and ultimately go out of business. That means that business owners who were part of the middle-class are now out of work or join Wal-Mart at minimum wage of less. Second, Wal-Mart provides no health insurance or employee benefits and the majority of the workforce they hire still are a burden on the welfare services in the community. Third, Wal-Mart is an unethical corporate citizen and uses its tremendous political and corporate leverage to squeeze local public resources at every level, avoiding taxes and increasing community burdens for police, fire, roads and other services, while ALL profits are drained out of the local community.

Wal-Mart is the ultimate corporate bourgeoisie parana and should be driven out of communities rather than be encouraged to come in.

[Tyler Durden]

7. OF COURSE this will happen. But did you send your 5 emails?

And make your 5 calls?

I did.

[rman]

8. Don't communities need better jobs then the ones Wal-Mart provides?

Like the jobs that mom-and-pop stores used to provide?

[Tyler Durden]

10. The point is moot.

The 'mart is THERE. Unless you are a particularly vicious bomber and plan an atrocity, then outside of the Macro-Policial-Economic system, you have no recourse.

AND did you send your 5 emails and make your 5 calls..?

[rman]

11. Right, Wal-Mart is there and it's never going to go away,

for as long as we keep thinking that.

[Tyler Durden]

12. I repeat: have you done your mailings yet?

The evidence is that NO major corporation will give TWO SHITS for your letters to the editor/posts on political board/individual or even organized boycott/etc.

Change the POLITICIANS or their minds, and you change the SITUATION. Thing what you want, but make the mailings.

[rman]

13. Look, i'm not your dog

I'm not yours to command.

[Tyler Durden]

14. Who's commanding you?

I am merely suggesting one of the few political strategies (other than outright street violence) that works once in a while.

Try it. You might like it. Besides, it costs nothing, AND it might accomplish something.

[rman]

19. "Think what you want, but make the mailings." sound quite commanding

Way to authoritarian for my taste.

[Tyler Durden]

20. Try "strong Suggestion." If you have a better one....

...I'm willing to try that, too.

I still will keep "suggesting" that the mailings and calls have merit, or, at least will do no harm.

[Armstead]

16. Revive anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws -- and raise public awareness

While you are probably right in the short term,. I believe we should not cede the field to allowing the massive concentration of wealth and power to continue.

The only way a tiny handful of massive corporations were able to take control of our economy -- and our lives -- is because we gave up the power to keep them under control.

That's not a pipe dream. This amassing of monopolistic corporate power is a change from basic policy and economic principles that did exist until the 1970's.

So we should not only be fighting for the rights of workers in oligarchical corporations like Wal mart today -- We should also be challenging the con job that has been imposed over the last 30 years, and reverse this course towards monopolization.

[DeBunk]

18. Now these components are made in Mexico, China, Korea.

And then they are sold back to you in Wal-Mart.

So, not only does your community lose good jobs, it gains crappy ones.

At least before your citizens made enough money to buy the products they made.

[Tyler Durden]

21. Exactly right.

That was the way it was supposed to work. You make 'em, you buy one, so does your neighbor, everyone gets by.

It just wasn't making the rich pigs enough money.

OH GOD NO WAS I BEING ANIT-ELITIST CLASS WAR BLAMIST? BAD TYLER!

[MadHound]

22. The trouble with your premise

Is that it has been shown time and again that for every single job that WalMart creates in a community, it also destroys 1.5 jobs elsewhere in the community. Small towns across the Midwest have a ghost town for a town square or downtown, why? Because out there, on the edge of town is a big box store, sucking the town dry. And not only does WalMart suck jobs out of towns, but it sucks the money out too. Whereas local retailers put their money back into the town through local advertising, purchase of supplies locally, local banking, etc. etc, multiplying the effect of that local dollar throughout the local economy, WalMart sucks up that local dollar spent in their store and sends it right down to Bentonville, where it is invested in their bank, or shipped to China to purchase foreign goods, etc. etc. This lack of a multiplier effect from the local dollar has just killed small town economies. Thus you have a ghost town for a downtown, and the Big Box looms over all.

And after years of activism and informing people of these huge drawbacks, small towns here in the Midwest are starting to respond, not allowing WalMart into their town or county. And WalMart is actually starting to suffer for it, actually reporting their first quarter of loss, ever. Meanwhile, small towns that have kicked the Big Box habit are starting to revitalize their downtowns, as local businesses are opening up in order to meet the demand left behind when WalMart was kicked to the curb. More people are being employed at higher wages in a less stressful work enviroment. We can't get rid of WalMart overnight, but if we keep on the attack we can rein them in and reduce the dominace within a decade.

Oh, and just for your information, I do my fair share of letter writing also. Not as much as you do apparently, but between a job, school, and starting my own business, I'm quite short on time.

[Tyler Durden]

23. I do not dispute the damage Walmart does..

And just for your information, it takes me LESS than 5 minutes a DAY to do the mailing, and 10 minutes a DAY to do the calling at lunch.

You took longer than that writing what you did.

I do not dispute the damage done by Walmart. I DO decry the futility of pontificating about it.

By the way, let's CLOSE the Owosso Walmart. YOU'RE starting a BUSINESS!!! You can HIRE all those people!!!

No? Well....